ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on forming university–enterprise relations, providing a critical study of the literature on the subject. The particular type of ties based on the use of knowledge, which are developing extremely dynamically nowadays between universities and enterprises, suggests the necessity of analysing this problem not only in terms of knowledge management and inter-organizational cooperation but also in the context of strategic management, which requires looking at customer relationship management from the point of view of marketing theory. Undoubtedly, modern universities developing based on market orientation and organizational management can be regarded as suppliers of knowledge-based services provided on market terms and enterprises – as customers using these services. Only such a broad view of the relationship between universities and enterprises makes it possible to fully recognize the complexity and nature of the inter-organizational ties forming between them.
